Mechanical cables (or wire ropes) may be used to transmit force between an actuator and a driven structure. For example, a cable may be used to transmit force between an actuator and a slide out room of a recreational vehicle (RV) (or an intervening bracket) to displace the slide out room between a first position in which the slide out room extends outwardly from the vehicle and a second position in which the slide out room is retracted into an interior space of the vehicle.
It is known to provide the ends of a mechanical cable with fittings configured to engage the cable end with the driven structure. Such a fitting may take the form of a ball-and-shank or hemisphere-and-shank configured to be crimped or swaged onto the cable end. The ball or hemisphere portion of such structures may engage with the driven structure via a slot defined by the driven structure, the slot generally being configured to allow the cable, but not the fitting to pass there through. A portion of the slot, however, may include an enlarged end or keyhole through which both the cable and fitting may pass to enable selective connection and disconnection of the cable and fitting with the driven structure.
A disadvantage of such fittings is that the ball configuration allows the ball or hemisphere to coin or otherwise deform portions of the driven structure defining the slot. Also, such fittings are known to become unintentionally disconnected from the driven structure when the cable is slackened due to play between the slackened cable and the driven structure.